Along the Earth’s spine

A lpine-Himalayan orogenic belt 'I grew up in Iceland.I still spend my summers there, partly as a volunteer at a campsite in the highlands.It sits right on the split between the tectonic plates that runs through the country.Around 65 million years ago, when Eurasia and North America started to drift apart, the North Atlantic was formed and later Iceland bubbled up in the middle.At the same time, other plates broke off from what was then the southern supercontinent, Gondwana.They moved north, colliding with the eastern half of the supercontinent Laurasia, pushing up a continuous chain of mountains.The Alps through to Anatolia, the Caucasus, Pamirs, Tien Shan and Himalayas were all formed in this way.I wanted to travel along that mountain chain, which I like to call the Eurasian spine, to see what it is about.And I wanted to use public transport where possible.' Public transport'I try to come to terms with how we humans are one with this planet.Travelling is a good way to do that, but not by plane because of the pollution